


Take What You Need

by cecilantro



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-28
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-05-14 22:09:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14778188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cecilantro/pseuds/cecilantro
Summary: Molly is the only one that Caleb doesn't need that constant invitation to take comfort in.





	Take What You Need

Caleb grabs at the back of Molly’s coat and pulls, almost pulls him off of his feet, in fact, Molly comes whirling backwards and when he steadies himself again, Caleb steps up and thuds his forehead down onto Molly’s shoulder so heavily that Beau hears the noise ten feet ahead of them and turns in concern.   
And that’s about where it begins.

  
The first time that Caleb just takes the things he needs, things Molly has offered him a thousand times, but Molly is the  _ only _ one that he’ll take from voluntarily, without the direct offer each time. Nott, maybe, maybe he would, but she has so little, he prefers to wait for her to offer exactly what she’s willing to spare.    
Beau threatens him until he takes what he needs. Her time, her attention, her rations, she sees that he needs them and knows he won’t ask, so she corners and prowls like a cat with its’ prey, until Caleb takes the things he needs as they’re forced into his hands.   
Fjord has offered, has insisted, and by all means he should be where Molly is right now by his insistence. With one arm looped around Caleb’s shoulders, alternating between regular conversation with Beau across the camp, and hushing when Caleb shudders from everything being too much.    
But it isn’t Fjord that Caleb is trying very, very hard not to cry on.   
It’s Molly.   
And it has been Molly since that first night, Caleb refuses to take too much but he trusts that Molly will tell him if he’s not equipped for it at a time. He trusts that in Molly.   
He gives a particularly hard shudder, making Molly’s sentence stutter halfway through, he finishes and disengages and carefully contorts to set both hands to Caleb’s shoulders and peel him away.   
“You alright?” Molly asks, and he’s full to the brim of concern. Caleb swallows around the lump in his throat, a few times, but it refuses to disappear. Molly sighs, but it’s the sad, affectionate sigh that Caleb recognises as something like pity.   
Caleb  _ despises _ the idea of being pitied. He’s sure he doesn’t deserve such softness.   
But Molly doesn’t pity in the way that Nott or Beau might, as much as he loves and adores them, Molly just wants Caleb to be okay in the moment. Because if anyone can understand the weight of never being able to fix the things of the past, it’s Molly.   
“We can take a walk, call it a scout. You up for it?” Molly says, soft enough that only Caleb- and Nott, by the flicker of her ear tip- can hear.   
Caleb just nods for him, tries to stop it from being manic, and Molly smiles when he leans in and kisses Caleb’s forehead.   
“We’re going to take a walk, see what’s interesting around here, where you should keep an eye out. The good things, you know?”   
Beau looks up at him sharply, between Molly and Caleb as the former pulls the latter to standing.   
“Alright.” She says, before anyone else can get in and question them, “Be careful, shout if you need us.”   
Molly tries to meet her eyes, the lack of aggression confusing and concerning, but Beau’s gaze is firmly set on Caleb, and that’s something that he understands.   
He blinks to her, because he can’t  _ thank _ her without arousing suspicion, and even if she doesn’t see him, she feels it.   
Molly loops his arm with Caleb’s, and the two wander away from camp, trailed by three pairs of eyes- Beau, Nott, and, to Jester’s dismay, Fjord.   
When they disappear over a ridge, Fjord looks to Beau instead.   
_ Is he okay? _ He mouths, and she shrugs, at first. After a pause, she shakes her head marginally.   
_ Molly will fix it. _ She mouths back, and Fjord settles back, uncomfortable and concerned but ultimately resigned.

 

Molly pulls Caleb into a hidden dip at the earliest opportunity, the base of one of the many rolling hills, but out of sight. Molly looks up, the moon is sinking fast toward the horizon, and soon, the only light will be the stars. Okay for Molly, less for Caleb, but as long as they’re together…   
He shoots the moon an odd expression. Somewhere between love and reverence, Caleb has seen it directed to Fjord, before, too, but this time he assumes it’s at the thought of the Moonweaver.   
“Mollymauk?” Caleb questions, quietly, when Molly doesn’t move for a minute. Molly jolts as he turns back,   
“Sorry! Sorry, easily distracted. Lie down with me, Caleb.”   
And he flumps gracelessly to the floor in a billow of coat and shirt and long hair, Caleb almost laughs at the sight and sits, far more carefully, beside him.   
Molly stretches out, back to the grass, and tugs at Caleb’s sleeve,   
“Come on, you can lie on me if you’re not a fan of the grass.”   
Caleb is, actually, a fan of the grass. It’s grounding, no pun intended, to feel the earth behind him, under him, around him, but he won’t give up the free pass. So he crawls up to Molly, into the crook of the offered arm, and settles his head on Molly’s shoulder. He feels, more than he hears, Molly chuckle underneath him.   
“I’m glad you’re eager, I was getting cold.” And Caleb is pulled closer, tighter, and everything becomes a hundred times more intimate. And comforting.   
Caleb closes his eyes.   
“Aw, I was going to ask you to stargaze with me, but if you’re tired, I don’t mind.”   
Molly’s voice is quiet, he’s so close to Caleb’s ear, and Caleb doesn’t really think before pushing and rubbing his head up under Molly’s chin. Like a cat.   
“I never studied the stars, I’m afraid I wouldn’t be much use.”   
“I can tell you pieces.” Molly’s smile is in his voice, and Caleb opens his eyes again, looks first to Molly, and then up to the stars.   
He pauses as he studies the locations.   
“I’d like that.” he tells Molly, softly, and Molly hums happily, Caleb feels the reverberations.

  
Molly spends half an hour pointing out the constellations above them, naming individual stars, rattling off bits of history and lore behind them. Caleb hums acknowledgement at all the right times, snuggles closer to Molly when he pauses to take a breath, records each and every bit of Molly’s rambles carefully. He sounds so excited, the sleepy kind of excited that Caleb loves the most, and he thinks that Molly could probably keep going for hours.   
If they hadn’t been interrupted by Fjord, coming around the base of the hill and nearly jumping three feet into the air.   
“There y’are, Nott an’ Beau are worryin’ about y’, Nott’s been firin’ off Messages every which way.”   
Caleb scrambles to sit up and point, his copper wire wound around his wrist   
“ _ I’m fine, everything is okay, don’t worry. _ ” he says to it, and waits, and waits, and,   
“ _ Good! Good! How long will you be? _ ”   
“Nott wants to know how long we will be?” Caleb directs to Molly, who shrugs,   
“We can go back now, if you want?” but doesn’t sit up, and Caleb looks from Molly, to Fjord, still standing awkwardly by.   
“ _ Give me another twenty, thirty minutes. Mollymauk is telling me about the stars. _ ” He says to the wire, his eyes firmly on Molly, who smiles and flushes in the last of the moonlight.   
“ _ Okay, Message me when you’re on your way _ .” Nott’s voice echoes with a finality, and Caleb drops the wire from his mouth to look up at Fjord,   
“Ah, okay, I’ll, um-” He gestures, and begins to turn, and Caleb makes a noise of protest. Fjord stops.   
“You should- you should stay with us. Mollymauk is surprisingly well educated in the stars.” Caleb suggests, nervous, and Fjord turns back to them, takes a couple of steps.   
“That okay with you, Molly?”   
“Any time, Fjord, darling. You should try cuddling this one,” he pats at Caleb’s hip, “He’s a personal campfire.”   
Molly watches Fjord flush, a sight he’s seen enough times to know, and his smile broadens.   
Fjord makes his way over to Caleb’s other side and lays down, scooches up toward Molly, and waits.   
Caleb shuffles into lying between them.   
He’s filled with a deep sense of safety.   
Molly points up at a constellation, and begins to explain again.


End file.
